Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Just home from our final vacation of the summer and ready for some raw food. Here's the encore performance--three more reasonably healthy salad recipes. The ingredients for the BBQ chicken and Southwestern salad are almost the same. Any of these salads can be topped with grilled chicken or salmon. The “Just Chicken” grilled strips in TJ’s refrigerated section make adding meat easy. I'm experimenting with quinoa recipes so hope to have a tasty one up in the near future.

BBQ Chicken Salad

Bag o’ Romaine

1/2 cup sweet tomatoes

3/4 cup corn

3/4 cup black beans

1/2 cup shredded carrots

1 diced red pepper

sea salt

freshly ground pepper

avocado, sliced

BBQ sauce (diluted slightly with water)

Mix ingredients, toss with BBQ sauce to taste. I’ve seen a dressing for this type of salad made from BBQ sauce mixed with equal parts ranch dressing or BBQ sauce mixed with mayonnaise in a 2:1 ratio. Garnish with avocado.

Southwestern Salad

Bag o’salad: Romaine

1/2-3/4 cup corn

1/2-3/4 cup black beans (preferably uncanned)

1 diced red or green pepper

3 or 4 radishes, chopped

1 Avocado, sliced

sea salt

freshly ground pepper

Salsa

Lazy Vinaigrette (optional)

1/2 c. crushed tortilla chips

Mix ingredients and toss with salsa to taste. Add vinaigrette for a more ‘salad-y’ flavor. Sprinkle crushed tortilla chips and place sliced avocado on top of salad. (Salad photo: Bazu)

Greek-ish Flair

Bag o’ Romaine

1/2 large cucumber, diced

3/4 cup small, sweet tomatoes

1/3 cup feta cheese

1/3 cup whole kalamata olives (optional)

5 Tbs toasted pine nuts

sliced red onion (optional)

sea salt

freshly ground pepper

Lazy Vinaigrette

Sometimes I make this salad without the lettuce. (Photo: Stephanie Levy)

Lazy Vinaigrette

The magic ratio is 3 to 1 in a vinaigrette--3 parts oil to one part vinegar. For this size of a salad, I usually toss 1 Tbs balsamic or red wine vinegar, 3 Tbs of Olive Oil with the salad and a splash of agave nectar, honey or liquid stevia to temper the vinegar. I call this version ‘lazy’ because i don’t pre-blend the dressing--just pour the liquids directly into the salad and toss.I think the French might call it heretical vinaigrette (Photo: Daveleb)